the way this poem is written is new to me. i have never seen it before but
when i read it over it makes alot more sense. the shape of the words
describes how 'a leaf falls on loneliness'.... it doesn't fall straight
down to the ground.. the wind picks it back up and it floats up and down
before touching the earth, as do the words.

Jacinta from Australia

Comment 65 of 286, added on February 26th, 2006 at 1:48 PM.

I have been struggling with translation and teaching translation to 9th
graders...I think that what rr states about this poem is sound and NOT
elitist. Thank you rr duffings for your imput...

cab from United States

Comment 64 of 286, added on February 26th, 2006 at 9:47 AM.

to me...the poem was saying..A leaf falls one in loneliness...when a leaf
falls from a tree..it falls straight down..at the bottom before it hits
..its tossed up..just a bit..at the trunk of the tree. Just like the
poem..it grabs back up in the words to grab another part of it..before it
settles to the ground.

You are about to receive a fairly thorough analysis. I'm compelled to do
this because I've read too much drivel on this site. By the way, a poem
does not mean what YOU think it means. Some C average, idiot English
teacher taught you that. It means what the poet intended it to mean. It is
only slightly tempered by what you, the highly questionable reader and
loose cannon of epic proportions, brings to the table. Fellow cannons, let
us proceed.
Parentheses occur in pairs. The beginning and end of the relationship are
graphically suggested by the positioning of the parentheses. It is no
accident that 2 letters (a couple) are paired as the leaf falls until the
word "one" shockingly appears. It's over. Notice how the "l" following
"one" looks hauntingly like a person standing totally alone.
Why then, is "iness" so large a word when juxtaposed with all the other
words in the poem? I'll offer that "iness" is I-ness. The state of being
I ..... the very alone individual.
We have thus progressed from 1/2 parentheses + "a" (one person beginning to
combine with another?) to the other 1/2 parentheses + "s" (one person
nearing the end, starting to finish? to disengage?) and winding up outside
the parentheses of the relationship quite existentially alone .....
returning, as it were, to I-ness.
LOOK at the poem. That is much of what cummings is trying to say.
Loneliness is "one-liness."
I have a Harvard education and entirely too much tIme on my hands. I hope
this has amused you.

rr duffings from United States

Comment 61 of 286, added on February 5th, 2006 at 9:32 PM.

This poem is very intriguing, though it might be a bit confusing the first
time you read it, especially if you haven't seen a poem with such form
beforehand. I love how Cummings went outside the box in the sense of
conventional means of writing poetry. The structure of the poem is
fascinating and I love how he used the structure to amplify the effects. As
many have pointed it out already, the way he's written the poem actually
does correspond to the pattern of a falling leaf. Instead of just reading
the words in a straight line, Cummings has provided a visual means of
impact as well. As for the interpretation of the first character, I agree
that it can be both a number 1 and a letter l. The 1 symbolizes the one
leaf, and the l is the first letter of the word "loneliness".

I read this poem last year in American Literature class and I love it. I
love how the word "loneliness" is broken up.. and I remember noticing the
"ONE" by itself and it really makes the whole mood more apparent. I never
knew that one bit about the "1" and "l" and how it's meant to be both.

VC

Comment 58 of 286, added on January 3rd, 2006 at 12:33 PM.

it is a pretty lonely feeling to imagine one leaf falling from a tree

liz from United States

Comment 57 of 286, added on December 23rd, 2005 at 4:44 PM.

I think the poem was made with the idea of iconicity; the verbal unit
represents itself which it means: the letters fall vertically on
loneliness, like the leaves do.

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